Imaginary Dances

Imaginary Dances is an apt title for a series of pieces mostly concerned with dance rhythms, many of which were commissioned by Birmingham Jazz and Cheltenham Jazz Festival and originally performed last year at the latter. Lockheart has been an important member of the British jazz fraternity since becoming a founding member of the early-80s big band Loose Tubes. His writing on this outing, the follow-up to 1998's Through Rose-Coloured Glasses, is assured in its deployment of the 11-piece Scratch Band. Well-known Britjazz names such as John Parricelli, Huw Warren, Martin France and Rob Townsend attest to the quality of execution the Scratch Band maintains throughout, and while the music doesn't quite reach the levels of pungency and expressionism of another expert composer-arranger working in a similar vein, Carla Bley, it has its own distinct character and sustains interest through resourceful shifts in mood and texture and imaginative use of solos. This last point is a happy change from the practice of many leaders, who just line the soloists up and let them rip. Here everything is gauged to serve the composition, not individual egos. The unarguable sense of that approach in this context is convincingly displayed in every dancing bar. --Keith Shadwick

Label: Unknown
Studio: Stay Tuned
Released: 2002-03-25
Format: Audio CD